5.7.13

BENDIGO BOUND

The
Australian Goldfields Open begins on Monday with a field of recognisable faces
but also missing several star names.

Ronnie
O’Sullivan, Judd Trump, John Higgins, Mark Williams, Stephen Maguire and Mark
Allen were the leading players who elected not to enter.

However,
Neil Robertson, Mark Selby, Shaun Murphy, Ding Junhui and the defending
champion, Barry Hawkins, are among those who have made the trip to Bendigo.

I’m
sure we’ve all seen rotten matches between big names and great matches between
lesser lights but perception is everything and the perception of the Australian
Open is that it’s a poor relation of the other ranking events.

Its
first prize is around £42,000, which is still pretty good but of course not
everyone can win the first prize. It’s a long way to go for a mainly British
tour and, if players are told they can pick and choose then it therefore
follows that this is what they will do.

This
is the final year of a three-year deal for the Australian Open. It remains to
be seen whether the contract will be renewed.

It
would be a rather cruel irony if it was not. Australia currently has the world’s
top ranked player. However, Robertson’s progress through the tournament is
actually less important than Ding’s. I have it on good authority that viewing
figures in China are the key to the survival of the event, so Ding’s fortunes
will be monitored closely.

One
of the problems for players seems to be Bendigo itself, which is not one of
Australia’s major cities.

But
the television production values are among the best on the circuit. Between
frames they show tourist shots of Melbourne rather than just watching the
referee rack the balls up again. Michael O’Dwyer, the executive producer for
IMG and master of ceremonies, is really enthusiastic and professional in
pulling it all together.

Time
difference, scheduling and a depleted field has seen Eurosport pass on covering
the event live. Despite this it remains blocked in Europe on
liveworldsnooker.tv although it is apparently available on Bet365.

With
various title contenders not present the event gives the chance for players a
little further down the list to grab some glory, as Hawkins did last year and
Stuart Bingham in 2011.

It’s
also a chance for Selby and Murphy, surprise casualties at the Wuxi Classic
qualifiers, to regain some momentum.

what a sham this should be on tv in the UK. the players really need to support this tournament the sport is no longer a uk sport and quite frankly it annoys me that this is the attitute. Ronnie, trump and the rest should be their.I hope robertson wins this week I really do. If not then Hawkins but my hat goes of to selby and murphy who dont think they are to big for this tournament. Sometimes its about promoting the game and not personal reward.look at bingham and hawkins their careers really took of from this tournament. If bingham hadnt of won this he would not have been invited to premier leaugue where he won well over a 100k in winning the tournament including round robin money. I even think he won 16k in one night.

4:37 - you are correct in that Bazza has replaced the premier league with another event that all the ranker winners will be invited to (the Champion of Champions), which the winner of this tournament will get an invite to next year.

If the prize fund was the same as the International Champs they would all be there, but that isn't where the game is in Australia at the moment. Great shame, but its not the 1970s any more.

Radio Bendigo,The news submerges the rugged parts,Word is that Selby only just won,The jungle drums beat out to confirm this,Horses roam freely,Hann boasts pointlessly,The bandwagons have reached down under.The snooker boys are in town.

Dave will Ding pulling out be a fatal blow to these Chinese viewing figures you are talking about ?.or are the Chinese so totally mad into their snooker they will watch all the other players who they seem to cherish more than the uk viewers anyway ?.

4:29 pm "anon 12.02 are you serious what other sports go all year round you asked ?.have you ever heard of golf, tennis or darts all played yearly like snooker."

You are right, darts play all year (if that is a sport). ATP Tennis have six weeks off, PGA Golf have 2 months off, Football about 10 weeks off, Rugby longer, cricket isn't played for half the year apart from the national overseas tour...

Dave do you think marco fu and his goo run in the tournament will boost chinese ratings so the tournament stays on the calender..I hope it does as the tournament seems to be well attended considering allot of big names didnt bother turn up